Samsung's made a name for itself by entering into new product categories. Some feel the company's gone too far, however, and relies too much on copying its competitors' products. But how far outside the company's core competencies will Samsung go to copy a competitor? If a new report in The Korea Times is to be believed, pretty far.

The outlet is reporting that Samsung is currently working on a blatant Facebook clone, which the company even refers to internally as "Samsung Facebook." Samsung officials told The Korea Times that its social network will launch sometime next year with the hopes that it will eventually compete with Facebook. The announcement comes as the company continues to work on strengthening the software and content side of its business, the report said.

Samsung won't be starting from scratch, however, since it already has some services that could be used as building platforms for a social network.

[Samsung] has been buoyed by the acceptance of its mobile chat application, ChatOn, available not only on Samsung devices, but products made by rivals Apple and Research In Motion (RIM). But social media has been fueling the explosive demand for mobile Internet devices and has always been its main focus.

Software experts at Samsung have a framework to build on in Family Story, a social networking service with an emphasis on photo sharing, chatting and schedule reminders, accessible on a limited number of Samsung smartphones and Web-connected televisions.

While Samsung has yet to decide a name for the service, some key aspect of the social network have already been solved. The company plans to integrate the service with Amazon's cloud computing platform, for instance, and plans on implementing it in the company's phones, cameras, televisions and Blu-ray players.